Springs Rebirth
by Hysterical Clerical Hijinks
Summary: Weiss comes to believe she is truly worthless and alone. What is she without purpose, without a cause? Nothing. And nothingness must eventually return to the void. Will Ruby be able to pull her back from brink? Or will she be lost to her forever? Dark theme. WhiteRose & Bumblebee.
1. Part (1 of 2)

_Winters end_

* * *

><p>"We'll be back later!" Ruby's voice yells from just beyond the doorway. Yang strides out of the bathroom towel in hand, patting her hair down in order to absorb some lingering damp. She throws her used towel in the corner of the room, flinching when she notices Weiss watching her with cold, indifferent eyes.<p>

'_Weird, she usually goes crazy when I leave my towel on the floor…' _Yang muses. She discards the thought; even Weiss can't get angry _every_ time.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Yang recites cheekily. She pauses slightly when no visible reaction is elicited from Weiss's stony form. '_Nothing new there, though.' _Yang muses. The silence is unnerving, nothing like Weiss's usual high-strung soliloquy.

Yang moves to the door but throws Weiss a glance over her shoulder. "See you later." Yang says, receiving a small nod as acknowledgement of her words. Shaking her head Yang leaves to join Blake and Ruby for the movie. '_I'll talk to her later.' _She thinks.

The door closes with a soft '_click_'.

* * *

><p>Weiss sits in the silence of the room; illuminated dually by the small light at her desk and shafts of moonlight leaking through the window. The atmosphere is undisturbed, containing a dead-still serenity that <em>aches<em> to be shattered.

'_It feels almost like a promise…'_

Weiss stands. Slowly, gracefully.

'_Always poised. Always perfect. Schnee's are nothing if they cannot even hold the façade of the perfection they must strive to attain.' _A voice recites in her mind, crisp and clear as freshly driven snow.

Her gait is measured, each length of her step symmetrical. As it should be, she had spent years practicing it. Like any true Schnee her step held no hesitation, no weakness. She approaches the small bundle of leftover materials remaining from the impromptu construction work on the team's first day.

The rope is coarse, sharply contrasting against the soft skin of her palm. Slender, elegant fingers dutifully pick at the small collections of knots in the fibrous length.

She splays it out over her desk, sitting decorously even now when she only has herself for company…

Her reflection catches her eye, a lightly rippling double staring back evenly. Her hands move of their own accord, dutifully working as her mind travels.

Unbidden; a memory rises to the surface. A memory of unspoken oaths; a pledge to herself and her family.

* * *

><p>"Mirror, tell me something," Her voice intones.<p>

'_**Weiss.'**_

"Tell me who's the loneliest of all?" Weiss sings. Her voice is a delicate counterpoint to the cutting silence of the world around her. The room starts growing chillier as her power slips loose.

'_**I find myself thoroughly disappointed. Disappointed but unsurprised.'**_

"Mirror, tell me something," She beseeches; a perfect length of uncoiled rope lay beneath her delicate hands.

'_**I had thought that perhaps you might find purpose, even honour in the hallowed halls of Beacon.'**_

"Tell me who's the loneliest of all?" She asks. Her haunting duplicate gazes back, it's gaze accusing; condemning. Weiss's breath is visible in cold air.

'_**Instead you have ushered the Schnee name to disgrace as always.'**_

"Fear of what's inside of me," Her voice echoes in the anticipatory stillness. Her hands work expertly with finesse borne of years of practice.

'_**A Schnee never bends the knee. A Schnee is not conducted like a pawn upon another's board. A Schnee never follows.'**_

"Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?" Her silken voice threads through the room; an eerie parallel of her thoughtless task. Frost spiderwebs up the windows.

_**'So when I discover you to be under the command of another, no more than a child, I find myself with an answer to a question unasked.'**_

"Mirror, mirror, what's behind you?" Weiss sings yearningly into the night. Her arms lift and strain, hands pulling a knot taut.

_**'You are no Schnee.'**_

"Save me from the things I see!" Her voice rises along with her body, arms looping the length of rope around her slim shoulder. Ice clings to the visible surfaces, iridescent in the moonlight.

_**'Never would I have thought a child of my own could be so utterly nugatory.'**_

"I can keep it from the world," She continues. Her aim is perfect, the rope flying in a delicate arc.

_**'You are not my child.'**_

"Why won't you let me hide from me?" She entreats fruitlessly. A strong tug confirms strength. A shuffle of snow falls loose.

_**'No longer will the Schnee name suffer your failure or your presence.'**_

"Mirror, mirror, tell me something," Weiss queries, standing straight backed on the heavy, hard wooden chair.

_**'You are forthwith disowned. You are not my daughter, you are not a sister, you are not a Schnee.'**_

"Who's the loneliest of all?" She asks rhetorically. The noose fits snugly around her neck, framing her delicate neck in an ominous wreathe.

_**'Head of Schnee house, Mathias Schnee.'**_

"I'm the loneliest of all." Weiss says finally into the tranquil emptiness. Ice snakes out, clawing away from her as the epicentre.

The silence of the room fractures when she kicks the chair beneath her feet to the ground, falling to the frozen ground.

Moments later the silence shatters when a distraught voice screams.

_"WEISS!"_


	2. Part (2 of 2)

_Springs rebirth_

* * *

><p>Ruby walks silently through the hallway, eager for rest. Her body shows a parallel with her thoughts and she stifles a burgeoning yawn.<p>

Yang and Blake walk alongside her, hand in hand. The partners are exchanging meaningful glances in the low lighting. Ruby supresses the urge to roll her eyes.

Young she may be; ignorant she is not.

"Race you!" She says childishly, sticking her tongue out for good measure.

Blake and Yang both look amused, lifting an eyebrow in synchronicity. Yangs eyes look thankful.

She doesn't wait for a response. In a blur of fluttering rose petals she departs their company, heading for the dorm.

She slows down as she approaches, her fatigue not encouraging her use of highly draining speed. She hears a distinct crack of something falling, but dismisses it, walking leisurely to her room.

A shaft of light, beaming from the shattered moon strikes her face. She stops to admire the moon.

'_It looks... sad.' _She thought, but soon dismissed it as the ramblings of a tired mind. She approaches her dorm door, seeing light pooling underneath and swings it open smoothly. Her mouth is open to speak but she is silenced when she takes in the nightmarish sight in front of her. The room is frozen over, everything covered in a layer of gleaming ice, poured forth from the source.

Her partner glows softly in the moonlight, beautiful long silver hair flowing gently as she swings slowly to and fro from the bannister, noose tied firm around her neck.

Ruby cannot comprehend anything, she does not know how much time passes. Her revery is broken when Weiss's foot kicks out feebly.

_"WEISS!_" She screams, rushing forward to save the life she hadn't known was in danger.

* * *

><p>Ruby doesn't hear the door open.<p>

In the last minute she had jumped forward, cutting the noose suspending Weiss from the bannister away. Ruby had caught Weiss who had fallen horribly limp, like a puppet with its strings cut. She had laid her down quickly, taking in her breathless form.

She didn't even register the moment she had started to resuscitate Weiss. Her lips pressed against Weiss's, whose own were so immensely, terrifyingly cold. Her hand found its way to her partners sternum, compressing viciously in order to encourage the breath she wanted restored in her unmoving form. The recycled air comes out visibly as she presses.

She barely tastes the tears on her lips as her mouth meets Weiss's once more.

* * *

><p>"Oh hoh~! Look what we ha-" Yang begins, looking at the form of her baby sister bent over partner. The rest of the words die in her throat as Ruby pulls back and starts compressing Weiss's chest, breath misting the air. Her eyes widen in comprehension as she takes in Weiss's sprawled form, elegant limbs splayed across the floor. Hair disheveled and free. Ice spreading in all directions form her prone body. Noose loosely hanging around her neck.<p>

"Oh my god." She breathes.

"Oh _no_. No, no, no, _no!"_ Blake says beside her, hands clasping firm around her mouth. Her eyes are burning with quickly forming tears and her ears pinned flat against her skull.

Yang snaps from her horror struck state and brutally rummages through her bag, looking for her scroll.

Ruby leans forward to exchange breathe with Weiss again.

"Oh my god. Oh shit, oh my god." Yang punches in a series of numbers. The scroll beeps ineffectually and dies. Yang screams her rage. "_NO!_" Throwing and shattering the fragile machine against unyielding stone. She reaches forward, ready to dive in Blakes own bag when a sound stops her.

A stuttering gasp leading to a small, hacking cough.

Her head snaps up in time to see Ruby collapse on Weiss's waking form in a low, keening wail.

* * *

><p>Weiss's throat burns as she takes in a great, heaving breath, chest aching from lack of oxygen. The cold air irritates her damaged throat further, eliciting a harsh cough as she struggles to come to equilibrium. She hears someone sobbing.<p>

Her first thought is that isn't dead.

Her second is that there is something on top of her.

She opens bleary eyes to take in the form of Ruby, her partner, wrapped around her midsection crying heavily.

"Ru-by?" She says hoarsely. Wide, red rimmed silver eyes flicker up to meet hers. Tears flow freely down Ruby's face as she moves forward.

"Weiss!" Ruby whimpers, shaking violently as she wraps her arms around heiress's torso, head buried in the crook of her neck. "Oh my god, Weiss!" Ruby cries openly. Before she can truly grasp the situation she feels more arms encircle her.

Pressed firmly to her back, head buried in her hair is Yang. On the other side is Blake, also hugging her fiercely.

All three of the girls are openly crying.

"Wha- I don't - _I-" _Weiss stutters but is cut off by Yang.

"What were you _thinking?_" Yang utters furiously. Weiss is startled to see crimson eyes levelled at her own.

"She _wasn't_." Blake says, half hugging, half squeezing to punish the young heiress. Ruby continues to sniffle and cry.

"Where the hell did this come from, then?" Yang demands. Weiss flinches slightly, eyes flickering to the desk. Yang notices the movement and stands up swiftly, stalking over the desk.

Weiss retreats within herself as she watches. Yangs eyes zip over the neatly ordered stacks, pausing at the thick paper letter. She picks it up gingerly and scans its contents.

A furious chocking sound makes it's way out of her mouth as she finishes.

"I am going to _kill_ him." Yang says seriously, furious voice sounding ice cold, a vast disparity between her rapidly heating aura which is quickly melting the ice. Blake gives Yang a questioning look, threading her hands through the silent Weiss's silver hair. Yang hands over the letter and the faunus reads at breakneck pace.

She growls deep in her throat, fangs bared and ears pinned. "I am going to eat his heart." Blake says gutturally. Ruby disengages, still breathing heavy, eyes wet with tears but sticks a hand out for the letter. Blake promptly hands it over.

Weiss remains utterly unmoving.

Ruby drops the letter in her lap, hands shaking. Her eyes meet Weiss's. The heiress is shocked at the seething rage in eyes usually so innocent.

"What the _fuck_ were you _thinking_ you _idiot." _Ruby says harshly. All of the other occupants of the room were too disturbed to hear Ruby swear for the first time to reply, until the silence became thick, apprehensive.

"I just... I have no family anymore, no one who loves me. And everything, my entire life! Everything I've worked for was to make my father happy..." Weiss says, tears in her eyes. Ruby's eyes bore into hers.

"You _idiot_." Ruby says. "And you think Jaune is stupid?" She says fiercely._  
><em>

"What?" Weiss asks confused. Before she can even register what is happening a pair of soft, warm lips meet hers. Strong, sleek hands tangle in her hair, tilting her head back to deepen the kiss. It's slow, languid and full of promise. Full of...

"I love you, you _idiot_." Ruby says against her lips, breath splaying across her face.

Weiss feels her eyes burn and throat constrict in the intensity of her emotions.

"I love you too." She says truthfully. Ruby gives her a small smile and leans in for another kiss. Soft and sweet, dancing warmth across her lips.

"Me too!" Yang says, hugging them both. Both girls give a surprised yelp. "And you do _too_ have a family. You'll never stop being a sister. And I think you'd make a pretty good Xiao Long, if you wanted." Yang says, eyes wet. Blake joins the impromptu cuddle.

"Or a Belladonna. I've always wanted a little sister." Blake says softly, arms around her most beloved people.

Weiss feels her mask crack then shatter under the strain. The letter, the day, her attempted suicide and now the love, warmth and acceptance of her new family. She begins crying in earnest, hugging them close.

The icy grip on heart is melted and forced away when Ruby leans forward and utters the sweetest words she has ever heard.

"Better yet, stay with me and one day I'll make you a Rose."


End file.
